The Short List: the Best Gaming Videocards for the money - Page 13

There's nothing wrong with it at all, it's at least as good as the 7600 GT and X1650 XT.

If it was under $100 and widely avaiable it'd be the best sub-$100 card of all time.

Yeah. Something like that.

On the first page of this topic is a videocard heiarchy chart that shows wherethe X1800 XT sits in relation to other cards.

Long story short though, it's about the equivalent of the X1950 PRO. Wether it's a good deal of not really depends how expensive X1950 PROs are over in your neck of the woods...

Either way, it's a helluva lot better than the 128-bit 6800GS though.

With your system an X1800 XT should give youb 9000+ in 3dmark 05...

that really is a shame that you are having all those issues. it may or may not be the video card, but any card can have lemons in it. The chip itself for the 7600gt is still a good one.

for you: did you build your own system? if so then there are alot of troubleshooting things you can do to try and fix it. It could be bad memory, bad psu, bad mobo... or just something not seated correctly. That is what these forums are for, if you put up a post detailing what your issues are there are many here that are happy to help. First thing though: Have patience. Anger and comps just don't mix. (I do realize how frustrating it can be though )


if you did not build it then a call to cust-service might yield a fast result. We on the forums are still happy to help, but no sense in voiding your warranty (yet) if you don't have too.

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY, NIMBLE. The frustration is simply because I was persuaded by a friend to buy a higher spec than I thought I needed, and every single component on the pc is brand new. From the spec I now have, I expect it tom be so much better than the previous pc (it has four times the ram, has gone from a p3 933 to a duo core 2.1 (4.2) from a 64mb agp to a 256mb ddr*** PCI-E, from a 80gb oldie hdd to a 160 sata II, etc etc etc - all with the promise "it'll do everything.........
I spent three times what I wanted to, and have ended up with a machine that no-one previously involved in the sale or supply of can fathom.
My friend, whose been building pc's for 18 years bought himself (or rather I did as a charge) EXACTLY the same machine, except for the graphics card. and has had no probs at all in the two months since.
He's convinced the card is the prob, I don'ty want to spend another £80 - odd quid to replace a card that has such a great rating but falls apart on my pc. My suppliers of said asus 7600gt card (RL SUPLLIES) have run a full test on it, and said nothing wrong with it......

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

NUTTER

Thanks, I'll try all you've suggested.

The overclocks won't make a difference the human eye would notice.

Get the cheapest one.

You figure out your prices, but from the list you have there GF7600GT<X1650XT<X1900GT


So it's better when you provide the cards you can buy, then others can tell you which are better from those available to you.

Well, Cleeve, looks like you've got your work cut out for you now that the 8600's and 8500's are out. So...is the 8600 Ultra going to have 256MB interface, because I didn't even see it in nvidia's lineup from their website. To me it wouldn't make since not to have a 256 bit interface between the 8600gts' 128-bits and the 8800gts' 320 bits. I mean looking at the specs, there is a HUGE gap between the 8600 and the 8800 as far as stream processors and interface--weirdly enough the core clock is actually faster though! Perhaps the 675MHz core clock (straight from nvidia.com) on the 8600 GTS is something the 8900 may have in it in the future, but honestly, who knows?

Do you find the specs (listed here at the bottom) to be...weird? I dunno, it's just unusual that the 8600's core clock is so much faster than the 8800's clock. Different--what's your initial take on this?

Another weirdness factor discovered...look at the www.nvidia.com/drivers section--the 8600/8500 XP drivers are actually newer and say they only work with the 8800 series in one place (obviously a mistake on nvidia's part) but THE DRIVER DOES WORK WITH MY CARD, MEANING THIS MAY BE THE DRIVER RELEASE WE'VE LONG WAITED FOR (there's a new driver for vista as well. Do these new drivers "fix" the DirectX10 complaints?) Any input at all is nice...I am still satisfied with my new card, but I will be able to check out the new drivers (even though they are in the wrong section) tonight, and see what's different.

EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GT KO is dis better performer dan x1650xt ??

7600GT can be purchased for $75 after rebate + shipping around $80.

NewEgg.
FoxConn 7600GT, price increased to $80 after rebate now.
And it's out of stock.
I ordered two, I asked my neighbor to help me get 1 for rebate purposes.

Yes, the 8600 is a bad buy.

Read the newest version of this list on the homepage of Tom's hardware, I haven't had a chance to update thew forum version yet...

From the research I have done Cleeve is correct, it don't look like a good buy. I have been "out of the game" for about 4 months and come back looking for new stuff. I was looking around at the ATI cards and see they still haven't released the DX10 card yet. So I settled on a X1650XT for my replacement computer (bad mobo). THEN I seen the 8500 and 8600s!! I was blown away by the price! Could it be true that I can get a card that is better than the 7950s for less than half the price! - Alas, no you can't. Pretty much every benchmark so far shows that it is not a very good card at the moment. I can't say for sure about DX10 but that is an unknown for now. Maybe when DX10 hits, it will show its true colors but with DX9, it just don't cut it.

What the? 8O 8O 8O

dude, unless you've been living down a rock for the past month... lemme tell you, the 8600/500 series SUCK, because of the price (if they were cheaper well... mmmm....), but there is no way they will ever reach the potential of a 8800GTS, unless something big happened in the world today like the apocalypse or something and I wasnt notified

So for under $200.00 you get the 8600gts. And start saving for that
$550.00 card that everyone else wants. Or just start saving for the
$550.00 card NOW. It's not always a matter of benchmarks! And who's
idea of which VPU by which company is best. But sometimes it comes down to $$$$$. For DX10 under $200.00 sounds like an affordable
alternative to saving for the "Big card". I got one ordered because i need
to move from AGP to PCIe. And i play U.T. (which never get's mentioned
in benchmark tests)
The newest one will be DX10. So i'll be testing out how it works while others are waiting for the next shipment of cards to arrive.
My AGP card is an ATI (true brand) X850XT.
It cost me $450.00 after $50.00 rebate when i got it. Very fast, very good
card. But i didn't layout that money before seeing how other cards did.
So until DX10 games come out we won't really know. But I'm prepared
to test them myself! And i value my judgement very highly

No! What i'm saying is that the 8600 is capable of being a very good card.
For the price!
It isn't known yet how it will perform in DX10 situations for the games that
will come out with DX10.
But to just say it is a crap card because it is out performed by currently
available DX9 cards that are lower priced or priced the same is bunk.
The answers that you and minty gave to trojan_virus were made without
all the information needed.
I didn't see anything in his post that said "I want the best card for playing
xxxx video game". Or i'll be using this for running photoshop apps.
Or, is this a good card for watching DVD and Blueray on my machine.
The clockcore and memory speed on the 8600gts is faster than the gt
model of the 8600. And it has the purevideo for better DVD and Blueray
video. There are "better" cards for gamers available at comparable prices.
Both in DX9 and DX10 capable modes. But all i'm saying is that some people don't have the $$$$ to lay out for the 8800gtx and want a card
that will run DX10 and has some features that support something other
than gameing.
Benchmarks differ from your actual numbers due to things like operating system, power supply, components you're using and even how much spyware you have on your system!
So sometimes you can save a little money if your not just buying for the
purpose of gaming.

DX10 is just for gaming? Sorry, i thought it was going to be used for other apps too. My bad.
I do play games on my computer.
And i'm not recommending it for the DX10.
It has features that are usefull for things other than games.
What i'm saying is that this card will perform well for it's price
and it has many good features for other apps.
But it does have DX10, which everyone will be going to sooner or later.
And right now there aren't alot of cards out with DX10.
This card is better than the lower end cards available with DX10.
And not at the pricetag of the top end cards.
I'm probably going to upgrade to a high end card after i see what is offered by ATi or what happens with Nvidia prices. But for now this
is my option.
i'll let you know how things go.

I might also mention that the card that trojan_virus may have been talking about was an overclocked version of the 8600gts by XFX. They made a O.C. version called the 8600gtsXXX. there is a comparison of it at Tweaktown. but it doesn't go up against the 8800.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1 [...] 00gts_xxx.
FYI

I am going for a new system based on

Core2duo E6600

Mobo intel based havent decided yet..pc vendor here says 965RY and 965WH not available anymore and I. E 965SS board is available but i havent heard of it though...how is it?

Also Graphic card 8500 GT or 7600GS or 7600GT?which one and why? how is sparkel brand? I dont want to spend more unnecessarily but at the same time not land up with card which is not worth buying though it may be cheap cost wise.

Ram will be 2GB 677Mhz kingston.

Please do reply urgently.

Thanks.

Well I am a techno enthusiastic person till have played games which work without graphic card like mario and spiderman and the mummy etc..but once I have the card I would try out new games...also i will have photoshop...I am planning to learn autocad etc...also wil install window vista..lots of music and pictures and video...

Yes, without question.

It's not worth an extra $50 for a 5% gaming performance increase.

But a $160 X1950 PRO is worth it, it'll beat the living snot out of an 8600 GT.

The HD 2900 XT will have to drop in price before I'll recommend it.

THe 8800 GTS 640 is cheaper and performs just as well. And frankly, the 8800 GTS 320 is a better deal than either of 'em.

Thats pretty good if you can get the card for <$50 And its dx10 compatible, w00t!